3 ex-Aquino Cabinet officials lose in polls

May 17, 2019

At least three of former President Benigno Aquino III's Cabinet members lost in the recent midterm elections running for various posts.

Based on the partial, unofficial count from the transparency server of the Commission on Elections, former Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas ranked 16th among the senatorial candidates. Only 12 senators would be declared winners in the midterm polls.

Former Budget Secretary Florencio Abad also lost to Doc Gato as the congressman in the lone district of Batanes.

Of the three candidates running for a seat in the House of Representatives, Abad ranked second after receiving 3,129 votes, while Gato got 3,367 votes.

Another loser was former Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala, who ran for congressman in the 2nd district of Quezon.

He ranked second with 125,629 votes. David Jay Jay Suarez won the post with 178,285 votes.

Former Health Secretary Janette Garin, however, won as the representative of the 1st district of Iloilo with 121,503 votes compared to her opponent Gerardo Flores, who only obtained 27,658 votes.

Garin, along with Aquino, Abad and other former government officials, are facing complaints of plunder, malversation of public funds, and graft before the Office of the Ombudsman in relation to the purchase of anti-dengue vaccine during the previous administration. Celerina Monte/DMS